RETRO Roamer

More Roamerisms from 30 years ago

■ Bottle banks appeared on the council agenda and Fort William and Caol were mentioned as leading contenders for the siting of same. Up spoke councillor Nan Forbes, from Invergarry. ‘Surely bottle banks and collections from them could be arranged for the outlying areas as well? This wouldn’t need to be on a frequent or regular pick-up basis’. That brought a speedy response from Mallaig member Charlie King. ‘That depends on which area you’re talking about!’ said he.

■ A local railwayman had a couple of off-duty, duty- free drams on Tuesday afternoon. Went home to bed. Woke up, looked at the clock and saw it was ten to seven. Dived out of bed and got the uniform on. Along to the depot for 7.15. ‘What the hell are you doing here at this time of day’? he was asked. ‘I’m here for the morning shift,’ came the reasonable if not reasoned response. ‘Well, you’re either 12 hours early or 12 hours late, because it’s quarter past seven at night’!